The Goshen Redevelopment board approves the vote to pay for a new apartment complex

 

GOSHEN, Ind -- A  local rental property wants to build a new 60-unit apartment complex and gets the approval vote from the city's redevelopment board to help finance the project.

Greenwood Rental Property asked for the city’s help in bridging the gap for the $11.5 million dollar project and was granted with a 3-2 vote approval.

Since early 2020, local owners of the rental property have been looking to help Goshen expand by building the 5 building complex.

"We found the land for the complex back in 2020, pre-pandemic and we had pre-pandemic prices and we were all set to go," said Co-owner of Greenwood Rental Property Mayra Garcia..

That is until the pandemic made things hard for the project.

One problem, the cost of construction prices and in this scenario he original price jumped 30 percent, which led to the rental property asking the redevelopment board for over $2 million dollars through a tax increment financing bond.

"Looking at 60 units, comparing them to similar projects and looking at others assessed value, they determined that we can bond for $2.35 million," said Director of Goshen Redevelopment Board Becky Hutsell.

The Goshen redevelopment board telling me that this complex improves one area that has recently taken a hit.

They hope the project helps with the ongoing housing shortage.

"We understand that we have a housing shortage. Our vacancy rates are exceptionally low, which is great except for we have no opportunities looking to relocate. People looking to move into a different facility. Calling any of our local property managers, you won’t find anything that’s available. There’s a wait list everywhere," said Hutsell.

The new 60 unit complex may seem like a small deal, but in reality the city and rental property are getting two for the price of one.

"For a long time, the issue was we needed job. You know everyone needed the employment opportunities. We now have a surplus of employment opportunities but what we need are the people to fill the jobs and in order to have the people, we need to have the housing units for them. We need to have places for them to live so they can work at the jobs that are available within the community," said Hutsell.

"We want to be able to say that we’ve helped improved the city that we live in and that we’ve done something good. Something positive for the city," said Garcia.

The rental property is awaiting the approval from the Goshen City Council in a meeting in February.